Every now and then some new study comes out that explains to us how we had not really understood everything on dogs, at least not yet, despite 14.00 years of coexistence. For example: a research by the universities of Lincoln and Sussex and Jean Monnet University of Saint-Étienne, in France, just published on Animal Cognitionsuggests that We have always underestimated the ability of dogs to understand our language. It is not true that they listen only to the tone, and only when we turn directly to them: They always listen to, and they notice when they talk about them or use family words.
Dog monologues. The one that was tested by the study is in fact The ability of the dog brain to make a filter to certain informationand to take note consciously only of those that interest him. In practical terms, this means that the 70 dogs involved in the experiment were subjected to listening to a series of speeches pronounced by their master, and “recited” with the most flat and monotonous tone possible.
These monologues were an acting of the so -called “Rainbow Passage“, a short text that, it is said, contains all possible sounds of the English language; between one sentence and another, The owners had to insert direct commands to the dogsome without meaning (“trust me, pass me the coffee!”) And others decidedly more effective (“trust me, come here!”).
I listen to you anyway. Well, everyone The dogs replied immediately At the “hidden” commandapproaching the master as if they had just been recalled. This shows that the tone of voice is not essential to be listened to by a dog: even a call without any inflection has effect, because The animal recognizes the words that are used.
This does not mean that using an enthusiastic and typically “dog” tone is useless: Dogs prefer however this type of communication, based on the tone even before wordsand there is no reason not to indulge them. Just remember that, even when you talk to someone else, Your dog is still listening to you.
